Somalia Geography, Politics, and Culture

Situated in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is a former British protectorate and an Italian colony bordered by Ethiopia to its west and the Somali sea to its east. The country, unfortunately, collapsed into political instability following the overthrow of the military regime of President Siad Barre in 1991. Since then, numerous wars have been fought to gain control of the region but are currently moving slowly towards stability with the help of an internationally-backed government.

Somalia has the longest coastline on the African mainland, including several islands and archipelagos along its coast. Most of its land is considered semi-arid and very little of it is arable. It does have a wide variety of wildlife including cheetah, lion, reticulated giraffe, baboon, elephant, bushpig, gazelle, ibex, kudu, dik-dik, oribi, Somali wild ass, reedbuck and Grévy’s zebra, elephant shrew, rock hyrax, golden mole, and antelope. It also has a large population of the dromedary camel.

Somali and Arabic are the official languages, although English is widely spoken, as well as taught in schools. Almost all of its population considers themselves Muslim and all food is served halal.